SAN ANTONIO – The family of an elderly man whose home caught fire early Tuesday on the city's East Side is fearing the worst.
The medical examiner has not confirmed who the victim was, but family members believe the victim is Pascual Tamez, 84.
Tamez's sister, Susie Arriola, and nephew, Joe Arriola, said the Korean War Army veteran most likely died trying to escape his burning home.
Susie Arriola, who lives less than a mile away from her brother, said he was her only main companion left and that he had outlived the majority of his eleven siblings.
Despite Pascual Tamez's age, he took care of their 95-year old sister and loved celebrating Christmas and going to church.
Susie Arriola said she and her brother drank coffee every morning.
"Well, I love my brother. He's the only brother I have left, and I'll miss him," Susie Arriola said.
"He always had a big heart and he wanted to care for everybody. And he would give everything that he had to help someone else," Joe Arriola said. "The thing that I would like people to remember is that he lived a life that Jesus Christ would've lived."
The family said firefighters believe Tamez was making his way to the front porch from the bedroom area where the fire started.
When firefighters arrived around 5 a.m., they found the home in the 600 block of Hammond Avenue off South New Braunfels engulfed in flames.
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"Even if no one was in the house, it was terrible," Robert Atwood, who lives next door, said.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said the heavy amount of items inside the home not only made the fire difficult to put out, but it helped the blaze quickly grow.
It took a secondary search by firefighters to find the body.
"It increases the fire load, we had challenges with trees, gutters full of leaves, so just a heavy involvement," Hood said. "The thing we want to remind people is that when you store a bunch of stuff in your house, it causes an extreme fire load for us, and makes this [a] very difficult situation for us to go in and try to attempt a rescue."
Tamez will be greatly missed by family and friends if the body is officially identified as his.
"He was a very good man, and it's tragic, the way he died in the fire," Susie Arriola said. "They said that he was trying to escape the fire, and they found him on the front porch, and they're not sure what caused the fire. But he's loved by many of his nephews and nieces."
Arson is investigating the cause of the fire.
The city plans to demolish the home.
